Tuesday on the Road

I spent the night in Mitchell, South Dakota and this morning started my day at the Corn Palace and then an antique mall just down the street.  I was able to find two pop-up books to buy and two others that while really old were in very bad shape and exorbitantly priced.  Once that was done, I headed for Minnesota by way of a two lane highway.  The road was pretty empty except for the occasional semi.  At first it was a great road but when it entered Minnesota, the surface was drastically different.  At some point what was a paved, albeit patched and rough, road turned into a gravel road and then a dirt road.  Soon a fair haired girl holding a stop sign (why is it that the girls hold the signs and not drive the equipment?) redirected me as my road was closed for repairs.  It definitely needed some so no surprise there.  I finally got to Pipestone, Minnesota and then found the road to Hinckley which connects with the road to Duluth which will get me to Wisconsin which will get me to Michigan.  Can you tell I'm getting anxious to get home?  I am.  The only reason I'm even in Minnesota is because it stands between me and Marquette, Michigan, the last planned stop on my trip.

So there aren't a lot of pictures for this entry.  I drove farther and longer today than any before.  I could have stopped to take pictures of the fields showing how they differ from those in South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, or Kansas but I didn't.  My only other stop was a potty break at a MacDonald's.  My stop for the evening is in a little known town, Milaca, which is just a blink on the road.  The motel is nice though and I was able to walk to the restaurant across the street for a dinner of chili and salad.  I'm planning to take a soaking bath tonight and start off fresh tomorrow.  Hopefully I can get all the way to Marquette.

The Corn Palace was better than I expected.  I had thought that it was covered with kernels of corn, placed one kernel at a time like a mosaic.  A pretty impossible task, I know, but that's what I thought.  What it is, is covered with ears of corn, corn husks, corn silks, and any other part of the plant that will give the color needed for the mosaic.  It is redone each year with some new designs and some old.  Birds do eat what kernel corn is on the building throughout the summer.

There are only the two sides done in corn.  The other side is shared with another building and the back side, which faces a parking lot, is plain.